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John S. Rego Joins Virgin Galactic as New CFO

Today, Virgin
Galactic, the world's first commercial spaceline, announced John
S. Rego has joined the company as its new Chief Financial Officer.
Rego brings nearly three decades of finance, accounting and operations
experience to the commercial space company.

John S. Rego joins Virgin Galactic as its new Chief Financial Officer. (Photo: Business Wire)

As CFO, Rego will provide overall strategic and operational direction to
Virgin Galactic's accounting, finance, financial planning and analysis,
treasury, risk and tax activities. He will work with Virgin Galactic CEO
George Whitesides and the senior management team to build strategic
financial and capital plans to achieve corporate objectives.

"Virgin Galactic is rapidly moving toward our commercial spaceflight
operations later this year," Whitesides said. "John has deep experience
in scaling high-growth businesses for sustainable success. We are proud
to have him join our team."

Rego's nearly 30-year financial career is rooted inleadership and
management positions. He joins Virgin Galactic after serving as CFO for
AppSense, Inc., a U.K.-based enterprise software company, headquartered
in New York. He spent nearly eight years as executive vice president,
CFO and treasurer for Vonage (News - Alert) Holdings Corp. in New Jersey, where he
raised $1.3 billion in capital, guided the company through exponential
growth from zero to approximately 2.5 million customers and more than
$900 million in revenues within six years. Other experience includes
senior leadership positions at Petra Solar, Inc., RCN Corporation (News - Alert) and
Winstar Communications, among others.

A graduate of Rutgers University, Rego earned his CPA license in 1985 in
the state of New Jersey.

Virgin Galactic, owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin
Group and aabar
Investments PJS, is on track to be the world's first commercial
spaceline. To date, the company has accepted more than $80 million in
deposits from approximately 680 individuals, which is 20% more than the
total number of people who have ever gone to space. The new spaceship
(SpaceShipTwo, VSSEnterprise) and carrier craft
(WhiteKnightTwo, VMS Eve) have both been developed for Virgin
Galactic's vehicle fleet by Mojave-based Scaled
Composites. Founded by Burt Rutan, Scaled developed SpaceShipOne,
which in 2004 claimed the $10 million Ansari X Prize as the world's
first privately developed manned spacecraft. Virgin Galactic's new
vehicles, which will be manufactured by The Spaceship Company in Mojave,
Calif., share much of the same basic design, but are being built to
carry six customers, or the equivalent scientific research payload, on
suborbital space flights. The vehicles will allow an out-of-the-seat,
zero-gravity experience with astounding views of the planet from the
black sky of space for tourist astronauts and a unique microgravity
platform for researchers. The VSS Enterprise and VMS Eve
test flight program is well under way, leading to Virgin Galactic
commercial operations, which will be based at Spaceport
America in New Mexico.